DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25181#0016
Ancient Tombs in the Island of Cyprus.
137
contain but two or three common vases, either destitute of pattern or with the
simplest designs. These were evidently the graves of the poorer people. A
rich man would frequently have a large assortment of vases of all sizes, doubtless
votive offerings of his nearest kindred. A common open lamp (see woodcut) of
plain clay, on which no pattern or subject is ever represented, not unfrequently
forms a part of the furniture of the deceased’s abode. No lamp formed like the
Greek has as yet been discovered in this class of cemeteries. Now and then
little rude clay figures of men, and men on horseback, are found, coloured black
and red, which it has been the fashion, perhaps without sufficient reason, to
consider as toys. One of these was found with about sixty pieces of better
pottery. Amongst them was a large amphora, which itself was filled with small
vases, resembling diminutive oinochoes, and a few pinakes. The presence of
so much superior pottery would indicate that the tomb belonged to a family
of distinction. Another represents a man carrying in his arms a goat or sheep
for sacrifice. The large clay pendent ornaments are pierced with holes, as is
also his peaked cap, to which they would be attached by string or a piece of
wood. This type of figure is illustrated by PI. X. fig. 3.
It now remains to attempt to assign some date to the class of cemeteries we
have been considering, and in doing so both to fix a limit to the time down to
which they may have reached and to assign an epoch in the remote past when
they had their origin. To attempt the first, it will be necessary to state that
the class of tombs next to be described is characterised by the abundance of
glass vessels found in them ; and, though vases of pottery accompany the glass,
they are never adorned with concentric circles, &c., but are mostly without
ornament, as if the art had fallen into neglect. The native Cyprians seem not to
have adopted the styles of which the progress is so well marked in Greece and her
principal colonies in Italy and elsewhere.
A few specimens have been found near Salamis of cylices and lecytlii, with a
black ground covered with a very lustrous glaze, on which elegant patterns in
orange colour are painted. But Salamis was a Greek colony, where the arts were
introduced from Greece herself. Nearly all the tombs there seem to have been
rifled in a previous age, and the only cemeteries of a later date which are found
in abundance contain glass and gold ornaments. Now the glass epoch, so to
speak, could not have commenced in all probability before the end of the fifth
century b.c., so that pottery seems not to have advanced in Cyprus, except in a
few communities colonised by Greece in a more recent age, beyond the old style
with its monotonous designs which has just been described. It is not improbable
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137
contain but two or three common vases, either destitute of pattern or with the
simplest designs. These were evidently the graves of the poorer people. A
rich man would frequently have a large assortment of vases of all sizes, doubtless
votive offerings of his nearest kindred. A common open lamp (see woodcut) of
plain clay, on which no pattern or subject is ever represented, not unfrequently
forms a part of the furniture of the deceased’s abode. No lamp formed like the
Greek has as yet been discovered in this class of cemeteries. Now and then
little rude clay figures of men, and men on horseback, are found, coloured black
and red, which it has been the fashion, perhaps without sufficient reason, to
consider as toys. One of these was found with about sixty pieces of better
pottery. Amongst them was a large amphora, which itself was filled with small
vases, resembling diminutive oinochoes, and a few pinakes. The presence of
so much superior pottery would indicate that the tomb belonged to a family
of distinction. Another represents a man carrying in his arms a goat or sheep
for sacrifice. The large clay pendent ornaments are pierced with holes, as is
also his peaked cap, to which they would be attached by string or a piece of
wood. This type of figure is illustrated by PI. X. fig. 3.
It now remains to attempt to assign some date to the class of cemeteries we
have been considering, and in doing so both to fix a limit to the time down to
which they may have reached and to assign an epoch in the remote past when
they had their origin. To attempt the first, it will be necessary to state that
the class of tombs next to be described is characterised by the abundance of
glass vessels found in them ; and, though vases of pottery accompany the glass,
they are never adorned with concentric circles, &c., but are mostly without
ornament, as if the art had fallen into neglect. The native Cyprians seem not to
have adopted the styles of which the progress is so well marked in Greece and her
principal colonies in Italy and elsewhere.
A few specimens have been found near Salamis of cylices and lecytlii, with a
black ground covered with a very lustrous glaze, on which elegant patterns in
orange colour are painted. But Salamis was a Greek colony, where the arts were
introduced from Greece herself. Nearly all the tombs there seem to have been
rifled in a previous age, and the only cemeteries of a later date which are found
in abundance contain glass and gold ornaments. Now the glass epoch, so to
speak, could not have commenced in all probability before the end of the fifth
century b.c., so that pottery seems not to have advanced in Cyprus, except in a
few communities colonised by Greece in a more recent age, beyond the old style
with its monotonous designs which has just been described. It is not improbable
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